The Atlanta area is not like the rest of Georgia:
Under Kirby Smart, Georgia is doing just fine in the Metro area. However, he’s absolutely crushing it in the rest of the state. Georgia has around 10 million people living it in and nearly 60% of those live in the Metro area. Why is UGA recruiting that 40% better than it is the majority of the states population and when Atlanta is only an hour from Athens?
To start with, you have the transient nature of Atlanta. It’s THE unofficial city of the south. People travel from all over the country to live there much like they do in New York and LA. A large number of those people are not from the state of Georgia. They don’t come to the state and immediately start supporting UGA. Most of them have allegiances to their own schools.
Atlanta is the city of college football not because it supports one team. It’s because no matter what team you support, chances are there is a bar where supporters gather to cheer them on. That’s not the case elsewhere in the state. Once you get outside of the metro area, the state of Georgia really only supports one team.
Going to UGA is something that a huge number of kids outside of the Metro area dream of. Putting on the Red and Black means a huge amount to them, their family and their communities. That’s simply not the case in Atlanta where many come from elsewhere. While it might be close geographically to UGA, the emotional ties simply are not as deep as they are elsewhere.